Hey Friend,
It’s interesting…
When you consider a fundamental truth, it pretty much applies to anything you stand up against it.
Here's one:
If everyone has to learn these basic patterns on guitar, why should I bother? I’m just going to sound like everyone else…
Well, here’s a little secret...
Most of us that pick up a guitar are in such a hurry to learn Stairway to Heaven (… or insert your favorite song) that we rush through or flat out ignore building the basic skills that make a guitarist great.
Truth is, the guitar players that are diligent in not only learning but mastering the foundational patterns are the ones that go on to play on those epic albums we’re still mesmerized by.
Remember, no one can run until they learn to walk. And we don’t walk until we’ve crawled. And oh yeah, we have to fall down a lot before we learn how to balance ourselves.
So let’s make sure we slow down and give the building blocks the attention they deserve!
Ah, Patterns
Just so we’re all on the same page, what IS a pattern?
Basically, it’s a form or action we can use to copy a result.
We like patterns because we can usually count on the result we’re going to get by using them. Even when a pattern is “random,” it at least gives us a way to track and group things.
Kinda like a shotgun pattern…
There’s no way of telling where each pellet is going to go, but they’re still grouped close together, and one shotgun blast is going to similar to any other shotgun blast.
We humans are pretty good at recognizing and creating patterns (even when they’re not good for us)!
Humans thrive on patterns because they give us a way to:
exercise some control on the outcome;
they calm us because we know what result we’re going to get most often;
they remove a lot of the unknown (fear);
they give us a center point to return to -- home.
Like Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home!”
We can always go back to the beginning if we get lost.
Okay, so music is defined by patterns; We like to celebrate new patterns, new ‘innovations,’ but here’s another little secret (okay, not so secret, but mostly forgotten about):
Truly new ideas are EXTREMELY rare.
Most of the ‘innovative’ techniques have been done before - or they’re rooted in something some old dude did years (or centuries) ago.
For example, Eddie Van Halen gets a lot of credit for the tapping technique, but various forms of tapping have been around much longer. Apparently, Paganini used tapping techniques on violin in the early 1800s!
But before either one of them could become “masters” on their instruments, they did the “wood-shedding” to own the basic techniques.
It’s just a fact of life; some things can’t be rushed.
The fastest way to grow your guitar chops is to learn some basic patterns, then buckle down and practice them until they’re burned into your muscle memory.
So what patterns are there for us to learn?
Here is a list I came up with, in no particular order:
Specific scale patterns: major, minor, harmonic minor, melodic minor, pentatonic
Modes: fingerboard positioning of scale patterns based on the interval
Intervals - the spaces between various notes in a scale
Chord shapes and positions
Arpeggios
Song structure
Rhythm/beat patterns
Strums
Picking patterns - all down, all up, alternate, economy or hybrid, sweep
Fingerpicking patterns
Cadence
Meters
Box shapes
3-note string scale pattern
Progressions
Tunings
That’s quite a list, and mastering any one or two of these skills could set you up nicely as an in-demand guitarist.
If you want to learn or improve at playing guitar, you should be relieved. This thing is all about patterns, and everyone can learn a pattern.
Give it the attention it needs, and it becomes faster and easier. As one pattern becomes more natural to your fingers, it gets easier to learn other patterns.
Peace~
Dave
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